The present invention relates to a service system capable of managing a number of copiers, facsimile apparatuses, printers or similar image forming apparatuses located at users' stations for promoting rapid and adequate maintenance or repair.
Today, a number of copiers, facsimile apparatus and other image forming apparatuses using papers are operated in various industrial fields. It is difficult with this kind of apparatus to fully obviate paper jams, defective images and other troubles. In light of this, the apparatus is constructed such that the user of the apparatus can settle such troubles as far as possible and restore the apparatus to its normal condition.
However, a paper jam, defective image or similar trouble of the kind which only a trained serviceman can deal with sometimes occurs in the apparatus. It is therefore a common practice for the user to make a maintenance contract with the manufacturer or the distributor of the apparatus. The contract covers not only periodic inspection and maintenance by a serviceman, but also rapid repair for dealing with troubles.
Japanese Patent Laid-Open Publication Nos. 3-293369 and 5-80609, for example, each disclose a system in which a single central control unit is connected to a number of copiers each being located at a particular place by a telephone network or similar network. The central control unit, i.e., a computer situated at a control center receives information representative of paper jams and other troubles from the copiers and collectively controls the copiers by remote control.
In a copier managing system taught in the above Laid-Open Publication No. 3-293369, each copier detects and counts paper jams occurred therein position by position and calculates, every time a jam occurs and every time a paper is discharged, the frequency of jams (maximum value, minimum value, mean value, mean value of deviations, etc.) occurred during the latest preselected number of times of copying (e.g. 1,000 times). When the frequency exceeds preselected allowable one assigned to any position, the copier sends alarm data or similar control data representative of the frequent jam to the central control unit via a public telephone network. This allows the control center to see the frequent jam of the copier immediately and, e.g., send a serviceman to the user's station.
Also, a copier taught in Laid-Open Publication No. 5-80609 is constructed to detect and store, position by position, paper jams or similar transport errors occurred during an image forming sequence. When a transport error occurs before a preselected number of copies are output or within a preselected time interval or when transport errors of the same kind continuously occur, the copier sends stored transport error information to a host computer situated at a control station via a public circuit. A person or operator at the control station can see the received transport error information on, e.g., a display.
However, in each of the above conventional service systems, a particular service center or central control unit is assigned to each area and cannot control image forming apparatuses not lying in the other areas. This obstructs efficient user support using carefully thought out graphs and reports listing various kinds of information relating to the apparatuses, e.g., area-by-area, apparatus-by-apparatus and factor-by-factor numbers of images formed and other information associated with the operation.
It has been customary with the above image forming apparatus to replace each expendable or replaceable part at a particular time based on the number of papers, operation time or change in condition from the stable quality standpoint. For example, a serviceman replaces each expendable by determining, based on manufacturer's reference control information, whether or not the total number of papers of the apparatus and the number of papers used after the last replacement of the expendable each have exceeded a reference number. This forces the serviceman to perform troublesome work for the management of expendables apparatus by apparatus.
Some modern image forming apparatuses applicable to a service system have a function of sending, when a trouble of the kind which cannot be automatically detected (factor to be reported) occurs, information representative of the trouble to a central control unit. To report such a trouble, however, the user of the apparatus has to operate keys according to a preselected troublesome sequence.
Further, in the conventional service systems, each image forming apparatus stores information representative of paper jams, defective images and other errors and determines a time for sending the stored information to the central control unit. The central control unit simply receives the information and reports them to the operator via, e.g., a display. The operator therefore has to determine or estimate the occurrence of a trouble on the basis of the above information and to determine whether or not to send a serviceman. In addition, the operator has to request, if necessary, a serviceman at a service station to visit the user's station via telephone or facsimile while selectively providing the serviceman with necessary information relating to the user's apparatus and conditions thereof.
Moreover, if all the information received from the image forming apparatus are sent to the service station, the serviceman has to determine whether or not the information are representative of a critical trouble or a simple report of current conditions. This consumes extra time and labor as well as extra communication cost. Should information to be sent from the image forming apparatus and a timing for sending them be noticeably limited, as stated earlier, it would be impracticable to estimate a trouble or the need for a serviceman (remote diagnosis).